Thinking about race and racism

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Given the current climate we are living in regarding racial injustice, I’ve been thinking a lot about the book I just finished reading by the historian Ibram X. Kendi called How to Be An Antiracist and about my own experiences as a person of color in White America. One of the ideas that Kendi discusses in the book is that people oftentimes think that racism came after race was defined, but he argues that actually, racism came first, which was what brought about the need to categorize people in different racial groups. White people saw people on the African continent and thought they looked different, therefore they pillaged and made them slaves simply because of skin color. When Asians tried immigrating to the U.S. and tried to define themselves as “white” (so as not to be considered the “colored” or “Negro” folks, as they called them then), the white ruling class shot them down and said, NOPE! You’re colored, too! We don’t want to employ you because of how you look; you need to be below us. All human beings’ DNA is 99.9% the same, and this is a scientific fact. So if we know this, the desire to then take what is 0.1% different is based on a need to create a hierarchy of socially constructed groups to elevate some and oppress others. The saddest part about this reality is that whoever is the majority, whoever is the “dominant” group then has to “approve” whether the oppressed group can get their rights. That was the way it was with women’s suffrage — men had to grant the right to vote to women. Yes, women fought for it and weren’t handed it on a silver platter. But the “ruling party” had to “approve it.” It was the way it was in 1865 when slavery was abolished; black slaves didn’t “free” themselves and make the law; they fought for it, and they had white allies (well, sort of. This is more complicated) fighting for them. It will continue to be the way we live until… forever. It will require a lot of protesting and a lot of noise to get there, as all these changes did, but that “white approval” actually has to happen. That is such a depressing thought.

When They See Us

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Last night, I started watching the Netflix 4-episode series When They See Us, which documents the Central Park Five incident that happened in the late 80s in New York, where five Black and Latino teens were (wrongly) convicted of raping and beating a white female jogger. Although I knew the story at a high level, I read more about it last summer, around the time this series came out on Netflix, because it was discussed during Trevor Noah’s The Daily Show. At that time, I actually had no idea this incident had occurred.

I only got through one episode, but it was hard and painful to get through. To think that kids can be tried as adults… what… simply because they are Black or Latino, is just beyond comprehension, that people in the legal system can force children of color to admit to wrongdoing that they haven’t even committed is just disgusting. The justice system in this country is unjust; there’s nothing that works in favor of people of color. It’s even worse to think that the original prosecutor who worked on this case, to this day, still thinks she was justified in all she did, is even more hideous, especially given that DNA tests showed that none of these five kids actually committed the rape. Her justification for this? She said they weren’t only guilty of rape, that they committed other crimes.

Wow. Not everyone learns from their mistakes or is even willing to admit to making mistakes. And that’s what is wrong with society, and in this case, white society.

Filming takeout videos

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As of last month, I officially finished editing and uploading all my travel videos through Indonesia. Looking back, I never thought I’d get them all done by May given work and other work and personal travel, but with COVID-19 taking away all “normal” life, including socializing and travel, I’ve had a lot more time to be on a computer editing and producing more material for my YouTube channel. I still have a decent backlog of cooking videos I’ve filmed before and during this period, but other than that, we have no travel content to work with anymore. The San Francisco burrito comparison video was really the last “not here in New York or in my kitchen” video, and we uploaded that on Friday.

So we started with a new type of video, which is about takeout you can get right here in New York. We chose one of our favorite and much loved neighborhood spots, Pure Thai Cookhouse, and filmed the takeout we got from there and what you can expect it to taste like. Is this going to be the future of “travel and eating” videos — filming takeaway food we’re eating at home? When will be we able to really eat out again… travel again?

Arroz caldo/lugaw

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Going through my bookmarks list of recipes, I found arroz caldo, which literally means “rice soup,” also considered a type of lugaw, or a Filipino-style congee that is rich with bone broth, aromatic with ginger, garlic, and onion, and oftentimes accompanied by toppings such as fried shallots and garlic, soy-cured egg yolks, scallion, and cilantro. The main difference, initially, between Filipino and Chinese style congee, is that the Filipino version has a lot more aromatics that are added in the beginning, whereas the canvas of the rice porridge is much plainer in the Chinese version. Either way, I love it all since I love, love congee/jook/rice porridge. It’s an ultimate comfort food regardless of what spin you take on it.

I made it in my Instant Pot yesterday and we had it for breakfast this morning, and I really loved the richness that the soy-cured egg yolk added to the porridge. It was even creamier and richer than it was before. The egg yolk served the same role that the whole raw cracked egg serves in soondubu jigae, or Korean soft tofu stew. Definitely want to perfect my soy-cured egg yolk method and continue using this method to make future versions of congee even richer and more tasty.

Same ol’ same ol’ every weekend

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“What are we going to do this weekend?” Chris asked aloud. It was more a rhetorical question because literally every single weekend since shelter-in-place began, we’ve been doing the exact same things: cooking, cleaning, watching different shows/movies on Netflix/Showtime/HBO/YouTube, reading, shooting and editing videos, taking walks, buying groceries. The most exciting thing that ever happens on the weekends now is if we have a video call with a friend or family member, or if our handyman decides to come buy for a drink if he’s free.

I realized that given how poorly the federal government has handled COVID-19 that for the very first time, our lives, as in our two lives, have been directly impacted by the the idiot in the White House. President Dipshit has done a lot of terrible things over the course of the last 3.5 years, but our lives were never directly impacted. Our ability to work, travel, live our usual lives, has never been impacted.. until now. First, he denied the virus was an issue. Then, he constantly called it the “Chinese virus” and blamed China. Then, he encouraged people to NOT shelter in place and to ignore their state governments. The entire country was a complete cluster, a laughing stock of the world. If our government actually had a handle of this virus and handled it correctly, perhaps we’d actually be able to enter a travel bubble with other countries. But nope. The entire world sees our country has dirty and has travel bans for everyone with a U.S. passport. Thanks, President Dipshit, for ruining our ability to travel and be free.

Linguine aglio e olio with shrimp

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Thanks to quarantine and the last four months of working from home, I’ve had more flexibility and more time to finally get to a lot of recipes I’ve been wanting to try out and have been digging into my recipe bookmarks and Evernotes to see what has been on my list. One of the dishes was spaghetti aglio e olio with shrimp (pasta with garlic, olive oil, and shrimp). It’s a simple, less-than-30-minute meal, and it uses the shrimp shells and infuses their delicious glutamates into the olive oil to reveal an even shrimper, more sea-like flavor in the overall pasta dish. I’m trying to be all about creating less waste, and before this recipe, I’ve been using my shrimp shells as part of making stock in my Instant Pot. But this gave me yet another use for my shrimp shells rather than discarding.

The result was simple, quick, fast, and delicious, and the ingredient list was so, so short. With an extra sprinkling of red pepper flakes and grated parmigianno reggiano, this could easily become a staple in our household.

How to be an Antiracist

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This past week, I started reading Ibram X. Kendi’s How to be an Antiracist. It’s required a lot of focus, a lot of re-reading of sentences and paragraphs to give myself time to absorb and take in information, and a lot of stopping to think. What Kendi makes clear throughout the first 40 percent of the book that I’ve gotten through is that racism is something that is learned, taught to us by everyone from our parents, families, friends, textbooks, schools, media — you name it, and they’re teaching racism to you in some shape or form. Some people think that it’s impossible for a Black or Asian or other “person of color” to be racist, and this could not be further from the truth. Racism against anyone is possible by anyone. Black people can be racist against White people. Asian people can be racist against Latinx people. Darker skinned Latinx people can be racist against lighter skinned Latinx people, and Black people can be racist against Black people. But I think one of the concepts he points out in the book that really made me think was that the term “racist” is oftentimes seen as a pejorative word rather than a descriptive word, and that is actually part of the problem. Someone who is striving to be an antiracist can say or do a racist thing, but that does not necessarily make the person racist because they are (we’d hope) still learning, still evolving). Being racist vs. antiracist is not static. We can evolve and change for the better (sadly, for the worst). So, we should be able to accept “racist” as a descriptive word for a specific action or statement said by an individual and not just pejoratively write them off as a “racist” forever and always.

That sounds like a growth mindset, right?

Opening back up

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I took a walk around the Upper West Side late afternoon yesterday, which was the first official day that low-risk businesses could begin reopening. This meant that a number of coffee shops and Starbucks locations had reopened, even allowing a handful of customers inside their stores depending on the space. Restaurants that had previously been closed have reopened for takeout and delivery. Even a handful of clothing shops along Columbus Avenue have reopened, along with a stationery store on Broadway. There was far more life at 72nd and Broadway, considered the central hub, of the Upper West Side, than I’d seen in months. Street performers were scattered throughout. A random man collecting donations had about a dozen different parakeets, cockatiels, and lovebirds sitting around him, along with two bunnies in the center, just steps away from the Upper West Side Trader Joe’s. It actually feels like we’re slowly but surely getting back to regular street and sidewalk traffic.

It still felt weird, though. We’re not at ideal testing levels. There’s tension all around not just because of COVID-19, but because of police brutality, racial injustice, and the protests that we’ve seen around the world in the last two weeks. My mind and even my body are just exhausted. Walking only about 30 blocks, I felt so drained afterwards. The world is just so tiring, and our nation’s leadership is only exacerbating the problems that exist instead of offering comfort or tangible solutions. This is 2020.

Hands, wrists, and elbows

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For the last week, my hands, wrists, and most recently, my elbows have been acting up. It’s likely from all the stress I put on these parts of my body from my computer usage, whether it’s for work, video editing, or just internet browsing, but either way, it’s not great. I’m 34 years old, supposedly at the “peak” of my life, and I’m already getting arthritic symptoms in my hands that seem like early-stage carpal tunnel. I do all the things you’re supposed to do: exercise, take breaks, stretch, walk around… and then I have this. My video editing has increased in hours since the quarantine began since I have nothing else to do with my free time, so why not edit more and produce more material? But that’s clearly had negative ramifications for my physical health.

My Dynaflex power ball that I usually use to exercise my wrists and forearms has not been helping; if anything, I think using it has exascerbated some of the pain. I’ve been icing, elevating, trying to rest as much as possible, but you kind of need to use your hands, right? Having weak wrists and elbows is not a great thing, and having tight hands is not comfortable at all, to say the least.

Pomegranate molasses uses

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Last year while in Bay Ridge, I picked up a bottle of pomegranate molasses to use in Middle Eastern and Persian dishes. Pomegranate molasses is essentially pomegranate juice that has been cooked and reduced down into a thick, sugary syrup. Admittedly, I’ve only used it twice outside of salad dressings I’ve whisked up. In an effort to find more things to use it for, I decided to apply it to the Arctic char fillets I purchased a couple days ago. So many broiled/grilled fish recipes use maple syrup or honey as the sweetener, but pomegranate molasses, with its own unique, distinct sweet-and-tart flavor, could easily shine on its own.

I decided to mix it up with olive oil, white miso, salt, pepper, and a touch of sugar, marinated the fish for a few hours in the fridge, and then broiled the fillets for 10 minutes. Fillets are always tricky to cook perfectly unless every part of the fillet is exactly the same thickness, which is oftentimes why center-cuts of fillets are in such high demand and sell out quickly, so I probably should have removed it after eight minutes, but even after 10, the center parts of the Arctic char were moist, juicy, with just the right level of sweet, tart, and savory.

This was a delicious use for pomegranate molasses and definitely one I’d keep on rotation for the future. I cannot say the same of all fish recipes/marinades I’ve previously used.